CATCALL – THE WARMEST PLACE

Sydney’s indie-pop songstress Catcall a.k.a Catherine Kelleher is responsible for releasing perhaps one of the most anticipated local releases of the year and upon hearing The Warmest Place it’s very easy to understand the enthusiasm. The opening and title track The Warmest Place features Catcall’s reverb drenched vocals calling to lead the listener to a warm place- the warmest place- before vaulting into August a track booming with a heavy bass groove and sparkling synths to accompany her soaring vocals. Satellites is a very commercial sounding venture with its upbeat house groove, anthemic vocal hooks and guitar instrumentation and melodies that are reminiscent of Rumours era Fleetwood Mac. Swimming Pool is a slow emotive groover with sophisticated synths that weave amongst each other and is seemingly inspired by some of Madonna’s 80s pop forays, particularly during the outro double chorus while the first single The World Is Ours and That Girl are more driving indie numbers. The album is largely characterised by dense synth instrumentation and 80s inspiration and the song construction seems very calculated to fit an accessible pop form in a cohesive album format that is slick, immaculately produced and geared to propel Catcall into the pop music stratosphere.

***1/2